of St. Augustin to cast your Eyes not only upon the Cockle but also upon the good Wheat and if you will needs be comparing the Professors of our several Religions together do not compare the best of your own Religion with the worst of ours but the best of ours with the best of your own and the worst of ours with the worst of your own and do not consider how little our Fasting-days or Holy-days or Confession of sins c. conduce to Piety as they are observed by the Libertines of our Church but what helps they would be to make all the world better were they observed in a due and Christian manner Another great cause of your mistakes is that great Lye devised by the first Reformers viz. That the New Testament is a Compleat Rule of Faith and Manners for all Christians Hence whatsoever Practice or Ceremony you cannot find there you reject it as a Superstition and Will-worship And this makes you quarrel with all Abstinence from certain kinds of Meats on Fasting-days and with all Holy-days except Sundays with the Sign of the Cross c. Whereas Christian Doctrines and the Evangelical way of Worship were first taught the world by the Apostles before they writ any thing at all Nor did ever any of the Apostles or all of them together go about to write a Book of the whole Body of the Christian Law like to those of Exodus and Leviticus written by Moses as is manifest to any one that considers the Nature of the Books of the New Testament The four Gospels are a History of our Blessed Saviours Life and Death who lived as to the External Rites of Religion according to the â—ewish Law and so we cannot reasonably in any of them expect what Holy-days or Fasting days or Ceremonial Rites we Christians are to observe in the time of the Gospel Indeed had the Acts of the Apostles been intended as an exact Narration how the Apostles lived as to the whole course of their life what days they kept Holy and what they fasted and how and what Sacraments they administred and now and with what Rites c. we might reasonably have expected there some mention of Ascension and Christmas-day of Lent and Abstinence from Flesh on Fridays of Renouncing the Devil and the Sign of the Cross in Baptism c. But that Holy Book making mention only of some few particular passages of two or three of the Apostles lives the Apostles might well keep divers Holy-days besides Sunday and abstain from Flesh in Lent and upon other Fasting-days and use the Sign of the Cross c. and teach the same also to their first Converts and yet there be a profound silence of them in the Book of their Acts. As for St. Johns Prophetical Book it looks nothing like a Ritual or an Account of what days and Rites in the Divine Worship are pecular to us Christians The rest of the New Testament are Epistles or Letters of Spiritual Counsel written by St. Paul or some other Apostle to Persons already instructed in the Christian way of Worship And why they should make mention therein of all Christian Exterior Rites and Days I understand not unless perchance the Persons they wrote unto had been deficient in such Observances The Adequate Rule of our Faith and Manners are the Doctrines and Practices taught the World by the Apostles of our Blessed Saviour And the Holy Scriptures are an Excellent but not the only means whereby we may assuredly come to know what Truths were taught and what Practices were set on foot over the whole Earth by by the same Apostles We must consult the immemoral Faith and Practices and unanimous attestations of several Christian Countries and what they joynly witness immemorally to have received from Father to Son from the Apostles whether it be a Book written as they tell us by the Apostles or a Doctrine taught by them or a Ritual Observance ordained by them we safely submit unto it as Apostolical For that the several Christian Inhabitants all over the World could never possibly meet together to forge a lye And it is no small cause My Dear Friends of all your mistakes that you conceit you know the Holy Scriptures to be the infallible Word of God by their own light There 's no doubt but any one that reverently reads those Holy Books cannot but acknowledge that there are very many Excellent Truths declared in them but that every thing in them is infallibly true and that they were written by Men un-erringly inspired by the Holy Ghost it 's not possible we should ever have come to know so much but by the teaching of our Parents who from our Infancy imprinted upon us a Reverence to those Sacred Writings above all others And did we but reflect that the assurance we have that the Books of the New Testament were written by Apostolical Persons is only this that so all Christian Countries since the Apostles have immemorially believed our Discourse would strait tell us there 's all reason we should ask of those several Countries from whom we have received those Divine Books in what sense they have been always taught to understand them and interpret them accordingly and what Rites and Observances they received together with them and admit them with the like Reverence And it will be hard to give an Account to our Blessed Saviour why with such awful dread you submitted to the four Gospels or Epistles of St. Paul as most Sacred and Divine and yet dared to reject as superstition and Will-worship certain Practices and Observances delivered to you by the same Hands immemorially from the Apostles Mistrust not the Providence of our Dear Redeemer he has in all Ages had a Watchful Eye over his Holy Church not permitting her to Apostarize by Idolatry or be defiled with Superstition or to deliver to posterity her own Inventions for Apostolical Traditions But more of this hereafter Till you hear further from me my Dearest Friends let me only obtain this favour of you to do your selves this right to converse familiarly with Roman Catholicks and to hear impartially what they have to say for themselves wherein they differ from you and not to fancy they believe a thousand Absurdities which they no less detest than your selves Yours ever W. H. FINIS
because he will not nor dare not Revel it with them as formerly Instead of Plays and Comedies his entertainments now are the Holy Scriptures or other good Books written by such who experimented in their own Souls what they taught others the works rather of Pious Mens Hearts than of Learned Mens Brains Whilst his Companions are roaring and rallying in Tipling Houses and Taverns he 's sighing and groaning in his Bed-chamber or Closet wrastling with his offended God by hearty Prayers according to what most presses his wounded and afflicted Spirit He dares not lye he abhors an Oath as Hell he is afraid to cheat or cozen any he deals with though he finds to his grief but too great desires of worldly wealth in the bottom of his Heart Upon days set apart for the Divine Worship he wishes he could keep his Soul wholly fixed upon God He can by no means satisfie his Conscience by bearing a part with his Lips only in any forms of Prayer though in themselves never so holy and good for an hour or two and then to spend or rather wast the rest of the day in idle talk disports and pastimes or somewhat worse Dalliances Revels c. But his employment is to lay up a stock of provision for his poor Soul to live upon all the week after Then he labours to renew his first repentant sorrow for his life past and to confirm his weak resolutions of another kind of life for the time to come c. But what hurt in all this if this be to be a Puritan would to God all the world were Puritans What need of such a Mans Conversion Whither must he turn What must he change to unless it be from better to worse But may he not change from good to better why what 's wanting in him That you shall hear by and by Only take notice for the present That I am so far from being Converted from thus much of a Puritan that I most heartily wish I could Convert all the World unto it The poor afflicted Puritan sadly and deservedly affrighted with the fear and apprehension of Eternal damnation labours and works how he may avoid it And Beading in the Holy Scripture those words of our Blessed Saviour Come unto me all ye that labour and are burdened and I will refresh you And seeing a necessity of some righteousness or other to entitle him to Heaven and finding nothing in himself but sin and wickedness and having heard much talk of the righteousness of Christ and of being saved by his Righteousness and finding some places in the Epistles of St. Paul which seem to sound that way all his care is to apprehend that Righteousness and to rely upon what Jesus Christ has done and suffer'd for him And by this means he begins to deem himself in a secure condition By the Blood of Christ thus apprehended and applied by a lively Faith he grows very confident and assured all the fire of Hell is quenched as to him and he fears damnation no longer And though unworthy of his Heavenly Fathers Benediction for any thing in himself yet appearing before him in the Garments of his Elder Brother he doubts not of a Blessing and that an Eternal one too And this conceit if it do not make hm very bold to sin at least it makes him very negligent in adorning his Soul with Piety Charity Meekness Patience Humility and other Christian Vertues partly thinking them impossible to be attained partly deeming there is no absolute necessity of them to his Salvation He having nothing to do but to believe that Jesus Christ has done all for him and what Love or Piety or other Vertue necessarily follows from such a Faith he willingly admits but for the rest solicitously to endeavour after the acquisition of Vertues he looks upon as the working of an Old Testament Spirit and a derogation from the perfect Salvation by Jesus Christ and his Righteousness The Old Covenant was Do this and Live but now he is under a better Covenant Believe and Live or Live and do this The impression his first awakening has left upon him keeps him from returning to open lewdness and profaness but his Faith of this imputative Righteousness of Christ makes him take little pains in the cultivating of his own Soul either in purging it of the Relicks of ill habits or in planting in it the Divine Vertues our Lord Jesus taught us to exercise by his Word and Example And this is our Puritans first mistake and a dangerous one too as I shall show afterwards His next mistake is he begins to quarrel with all Exterior Worship and Ceremonies And he falls into this mistake by reflecting upon his own Experience as having reaped no benefit by forms of Prayer by Bowing at the Name of Jesus by looking upon certain days as Holy-days and Fasting-days c. Hence he begins to think all such Observances are wholly useless and unprofitable if not abominable and superstitious besides And he is much confirmed in this his Imagination by considering the open profaness and little sense of God he observes generally in zealous Conformists Moreover on the other side he takes notice of his Brethren Non-Conformists that they are generally free from open and scandalous sins and at least sigh and breath after Interior Spirit and Devotion which certainly must be that must give us a Title to Heaven rather than a few cringes or Exterior Verbal Devotions which any one though never so Profane may easily exercise and indeed he sees with his Eyes many do Exercise who give no Testimony at all of any work of Regeneration in their Hearts but by their profane light and vain Conversation give too clear evidences of their being still in their natural unregenerate condition And accordingly their Preachers in their Sermons have little life or zeal and seldom discourse of such Truths as are apt to awaken Mens Consciences and make them lay to Heart the great concern of the Salvation of their Souls Or if they do at any time Preach of Judgment or Hell Repentance or a New Life they do it very coldly and imperfectly and seem to talk like Parrots what they have learnt by rote and out of others Books and not what they have had any Experience of in their own Hearts Such Reflections joyn'd with some places of the New Testament not rightly understood make him think that whatsoever was pleasing to Almighty God or profitable to the Jewish People under Moses Now we that are under the Gospel must be Spiritual Worshippers if we will be Worshippers in Truth and must cast away all Exterior forms of words and outward observances of days and places as hindrances to True Spiritual Gospel-worship And all agreeing that the Body of the Mosaical Law is abolished with its Priesthood Sacrifices special Garments in time of Divine Worship particular days to be kept Holy c. This being confessed by all as well Protestants as Papists and finding no clear
seen with their Eyes taught and established by the first Planters of Christianity No I know no such thing Though this would have been a strange favour to the World would the Almighty Creator have wrought such a Miracle in favour of Ignorant Man But what then Did Jesus Christ after the manner of Moses write a Book of all Christian Rites and Observances or did he not at least command some one of his Twelve Apostles or all of them together to write some such Book so full so compleat so plain as none that would not willingly mistake could possibly mis-understand it Certainly he could not but foresee what disputes would arise about observances of Days and Sacraments amongst Christians in future Ages Why did he not tell us plainly by some Authentick Writing or other His pleasure was that all the Mosaical Rites and Observances of Days should be abolished and instead of them he would have no Exterior Rites and Days at all or else if he would have any why did he not take care that some Book or other should be written wherein every one that could read might see how many Rites called Sacraments he would have to be used amongst Christians and how and to whom and by whom he would have them to be administred Whether he would have certain days observed by Christians in memory of his Birth Death Resurrection and Ascension or no any set days of Fasting any distinction of Garments in Priests from the People or no But himself to write never a Book to this purpose nor any of his Apostles to write any thing but his Holy Life and Death four times over and some little of the Life of some one or two of his Apostles and a few occasional Letters of two or three of his Followers to particular Christians whom they had fully instructed by word of mouth what can we conclude from all this But that surely Jesus Christ has left us some other means than those written Books we have fully to instruct us in the whole Counsel of God in Order to our Eternal Salvation Indeed I find an Ancient Prophesie that in the latter days God Almighty would write his Laws in his Peoples Hearts Was this to intimate to us that whosoever would find fully and clearly the Laws of Jesus Christ in the latter days he must not so much consult written Books as the Hearts of Christians And truly there is no other way without a miraculous Revelation by the Ministry of Angels or some such means for us who live now to know what was taught or practiced sixteen hundred years before we were born but only by Books written in that time or near that time or else without Books by the oral Tradition of Fathers to their Children But what Certitude can there be in this Could we speak with every Father and Son that has lived since the Apostles days and should they tell us unanimously that they had been taught to believe and practice thus and thus For Example to Baptize Children or not to Baptize them to abstain from Flesh on Fridays or not to abstain in memory of our Lords bitter Death and Passion and to humble our selves for our sins and such like no body could doubt of the truth of such a Testimony more than he does mistrust his own Eyes or other Senses But all the intervening Fathers and Sons 'twixt us and the first Age wherein our Lord Jesus lived except only our Fathers and Grandfathers being gone to another World my Grandfather can tell me certainly what his Father taught him concerning Fasting on Friday Baptizing of Infants Reverencing such a Book as of Divine Authority written by a Holy Man talled Mathew sixteen hundred years ago but what assurance can he give me that all his Progenitors have practic'd and believ'd after the same manner ever since the Apostles days Why what assurance could a Jew that lived in our Blessed Savioms time have given to a Pagan or to one of his own Children that the Books of the Law of Moses were written by a Holy Man called Moses who familiarly conversed with God so many hundred years ago He could only have discoursed to him after this manner Thus I was told by my Father and thus all our Neighbouts were told by their Fathers and 't is impossible in any Age since our Great Moses all our Ancestors should agree together to tell their Posterity so great a lye to their own and their Posterities Eternal damnation One Man may tell an impudent notorious lye but a whole Countrey cannot conspire in a lye which they know to be a lye or could they some neighbour Nation would tell the Cheat to Posterity In like manner must the Apostolical Christian answer when he is demanded an account why he reveres such and such Books as Apostolical writings or observes such and such Rites as Apostolical Ordinations And this is the belief and practice of an Apostolical Christian in general VVhatsoever this present Age or any other Age since the Apostles time in several Nations and Countries unanimously attest that they have received from their Forefathers from the Apostles and he cannot positively show that it was of a later date begun for Example in or near such a time by such and such he submits to it as Apostolical and this though it cannot positively be proved that for Example such a Book or Practice was received in every Age since the Apostles days by positive Testimonies out of Authentick writings of every particular Age. And thus much satisfaction and no more could Jacob have given to his Children why he kept the Sabbath day commanded by Almighty God to our first Parent Adam above two thousand years before He had neither Scripture nor other Record of writing for any such Institution the use of writing being unknown to the world till afterwards when God Almighty wrote the Ten Commandments in Two Tables of Stone He could only tell them thus he and his Neighbours had been immemorially taught to believe And their objecting how could they tell but some body out of a supersttious opinion of more Sanctity in every seventh day than in every sixth or eighth might have introduced the will-worship of such an Observation such an Objection I say as this would not have excused them before God from such an Obligation which the whole present Generation told them they had observed immemorially from Adam And indeed though it were granted that according to the Holy Scriptures we Christians are obliged to keep every first day of the week Holy yet it cannot be proved out of Scripture or any other Book or by any other Argument but the immemorial tradition and practice of several Christian Countries that the day we now observe is the true first day of the week from that first first-day on which our Blessed Savour rose from Death to Life And yet that there should be Christians who should make no distinction betwixt Friday and the other days of the week
THE PURITAN CONVERT Not to Prelatick Protestantism and yet to Prelatick Protestantism nor to Popery and yet to Popery but absolutely and without Reserve to Apostolical Christianity That is to whatsoever Doctrine or practice Prelatick Protestant or Papist can prove to have been taught the World by the Apostles of Jesus Christ OR A DISCOURSE By way of a LETTER Shewing That Prelatick Protestants if they will be true to their Practises and Principles have all reason to turn Papists in all things as to what Papists indeed hold but in nothing as to what Papists are vulgarly believed to hold And that de facto Non-conformists would turn Papists were they not imposed upon by false Principles and notorious Slanders devised by the first Separatists from the Church of Rome By W. H. Come and I will teach you how great things God has done for my Soul Printed Anno Domini MDCLXXVI Permissu Superiorum THE CATHOLICK NAKED TRUTH OR THE PURITAN CONVERT TO Apostolical Christianity BVT why the Naked Truth Because I design a Candid Naked Description of a Puritan Prelatick Protestant Papist c. I expect the fate of Poor Robins Adamite Some body or other will have a lash at me But if I scape so well as the Author of the Prelatick Naked Truth has done I hope no blood will follow To wit to be first lashed by a severe Animadverter and then to be stript Naked afterwards Had the Candid Author been stript first and then whipt his Case had been more pitious The Animadverter was a little too hasty A Third I hear has taken him to task but they say he is a more Gentle Whipster With my Soul I compassionate him as one meerly imposed upon by Forgeries and false Principles devised by the Reformers and amongst others especially by this that the New Scripiure is the adequate Rule of Christian Faith and Worship Go on Worthy Sir to Fast and Pray whilst others Feast and Play at Lantrelue The First Letter What the Author means by a Prelatick Protestant Puritan c. My Dearest Friends and Nearest Relations IT is my hearts desire to speak with every one of you and to tell you with all Sincerity what the All Good God has done for my Poor Soul but the troublesomness of the times and your great distance from one another not permitting me so great a comfort I have thought fit to communicate to you my good Wishes of your Eternal Happiness by Ink and Paper Our dear Redeemer Jesus Christ Bless my Poor Labours to you all and stir up others who are better able more fully to instruct you in the way to Everlasting Bliss which I know to be the great desire of your Souls After the search of many years spent in Prayer Reading and conference with Persons of different perswasions I doubt not but I have found out the Truth Almighty God be forever Blessed for it I doubt not but I have found out the True Church of Jesus Christ the indeed People of God who walk in the direct Path to endless Beatitude and whosoever walks as they walk and teach shall infallibly see God for ever I confess I am Converted from Puritanism But to what to Prelatick Protestantism No nor to Popery neither But to Antient Apostolick Christianity Though indeed I have not so much left Puritanism as Prelaticks call it as added that to it wherein I found it and I hope many of you will find it come short of the Holy Apostles Doctrine and Institutions That you may the better understand me in my ensuing Discourse I will briefly Explain to you what I understand by a Puritan what by a Prelatick Protestant and what by a Papist and what by an Apostolical Christian which I profess my self by the Grace of Jesus Christ to be I understand by a Puritan one that being Visited from Heaven by rousing checks of Conscience could find no Rest for their troubled Soul by living under the liveless Ministry and Spiritless form of the established Religion of England One who by reading some portion of Holy Scripture or other Spiritual Book or by hearing some awakening Sermon was so struck from above that he had nothing in his Heart nor Mouth but that great Question of the man concern Sirs What must I do to be Saved One who from the Visitation from on high had so much life in him as to be sensible of the heavy burden of a hard Heart and whose great Prayer to the Almighty was To take from him his Heart of Stone and to give him a Heart of Flesh No Books no Company no Sermons no Thoughts were gustful to him but such as were conducing to the melting and changing of his Heart and Soul All Lip-labour he deem'd but lost Labour so long as his Soul within was not chang'd so long as his Heart was hard he could find no satisfaction in words and expressions though never so Pathetical whether uttered by himself or others or set down in Printed Books Nay he was so far from being satisfied with such wordy Devotions that he was even afraid to use them for fear of being guilty of damnable Hypocrisy For Example to say or read by way of Prayer O my God my All How I love you How my Soul is grieved that ever I have offended you his Conscience telling him he had no such Affections but that his Heart was hard as a very Stone No relenting of hearty sorrow for past iniquities no tender resentments of the innumerable Divine Benefits no strong hopes of future Eternal Goods nor yet affrighting fears of the dreadful day of wrath Conscious to himself of a great deal of ill past and clear conviction of no present good disposition in his Soul and yet assuredly perswaded there must some good be in the Soul or no hopes of enjoying the Almighty for ever without holiness true Internal Holiness Heart-Holiness Spirit-Holiness in this life no hopes of seeing the All Good God in the next And thus much of a Puritan I think none that has any sense of a God can mislike of whatsoever perswasion he is whether he be Papist Protestant or Phanatick I do not use these terms to revile or exasperate any one but meerly for distinction sake And I beseech my Reader not to be offended at them if he meet with them now and then in my following Discourse God forbid I should willingly anger those wounds which with my Soul I desire to cure But what do I understand further by a Puritan I understand one who wearied out with wrastling against the corruptions of his own Heart still finds much evil in the interior of his Soul boylings of anger flames of concupiscence greedy desires of Money and the things of this life and however exteriorly reformed and changed he may seem to be to the World he 's dis-satisfied within himself that he is not changed enough nor changed enough I say although his profane Kindred and acquaintance think him changed but too too much
peradventure there can be no Real Presence of Christs Body The same remaining the same without any change must needs be the same But if there be any change made in Accidents its evident there 's none our Senses and all Popish Doctors confessing as much If therefore there be any change it must be in the substances of Bread and Wine and if so what can such a Change be more properly called than Transubstantiation or the change of the substances of Bread and Wine into the substance of our Blessed Saviours Body and Blood the accidents of figure tast and colour remaining unaltered The Prelatick Protestant wonders that the Puritan when he is going out of this World should find difficulty to make a particular Confession of his sins if any grievous matter lye upon his Conscience and humbly desire the Prelatick Priests Absolution saying over him after his special Confession By the Authority of Jesus Christ committed to me I Absolve thee from thy sins in the Name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost The Puritan replies if Jesus Christ has Instituted any such Ordinance he sees not why every one should not frequent it every year or as often as he finds himself conscious of any heynous crime with the Papist But Jesus Christ having Instituted no such Right or Sacrament he wonders any dare be so bold to press it upon any Christian living or dying and indeed least of all dying when sure if ever we ought to have a care not to seek to please Almighty God by unprescribed Will-worship or Inventions of our own Moreover the Prelatick Protestant wonders at the Puritans Niceness that he can by no means be perswaded to Bow at the Sacred Name of Jesus when Nature teaches us a Relative Reverence to any thing that has a Relative Respect to a Person whom we Honour Every one without scruple standing bare in the Presence-Chamber nor does any one pass the Kings Chair of State without a Reverend Bow whether His Majesty be there or no. And the simple Puritan deems it as gross Idolatry to worship Sounds as Colours Names as Pictures and stranges that any one who does so superstitiously cringe and bow at the Name of Jesus should smile at a Papist for respectfully putting off his Hat when he passes by the Picture of the same Jesus The sound of the Name of Jesus being vanish'd and gone before the superstitious Worshipper can make his Mimical Congy whereas the Picture a far more lively Representation of the same Great Lord is permanent and remains to receive its Devout Reverers Relative Respect The Conformist wonders what there is in a decent White Surplice that should boggle the skewish Puritan And the Puritan admires how any one can think a Surplice should become a publick Minister of the Divine Worship and yet throw away as Babilonish Rags the Popish Girdle Stole and Casuble which add Splendor and Decency to the same unwritten superstitious Garb unless it be because they are more chargable The Conformist wonders at the Puritans scrupulosity that he cannot say Amen to that Prayer in the Burial of the Dead That we with this our Brother and all other departed in the true Faith of thy Holy Name may have our perfect Consummation and Bliss both in Body and Soul c. We must pray for the Dead says the Rector of St. Martins in Oxford in his Sermon called the Schismatical Puritan Thy Kingdom come O Lord raise the dead Prisoners in the Grave And herein we pray for their Souls and Bodies God be with them to comfort their Souls deprived of their Bodies And to the Puritan this seems plain Popery In fine the Prelatick Protestant wonders at the Puritans pride that he will not submit his Judgment in matters of Faith to the determination of a Council of all the Reverend Bishops of the Land His Majesty as supreme Head and Governor presiding And the Puritan is amazed that if we may pin our Faith upon another mans sleeve safely believe as a particular Church in England believes how it can be unsafe to submit ones judgment to the determination of a General Council of all the Learned Bishops of the Christian world his Holiness the Pope as supreme Pastor presiding believe as the Universal Church of Christ believes 'T is fitting says the Conformist that for order sake in Christs Church there should be in every Nation some supreme Governors to whose Directions in matters of Divine Worship all should submit else we shall have as many Christian Religions and ways of Worship as there are Parishes nay as there are private Families or particular Persons The Puritan replies if we must conclude our Lord Jesus governs his Church as our reason tells us it's fitting he should for Union Decency and Order govern it and not according to the infallible written Rule of the New Testament If the Case be this It seems to him as rational that he should for the same Reasons of conserving Union Decency and Order in his Church appoint one supreme Pastor over all Christians dispersed in all the Nations of the World whom all should obey in the vacancy of General Councils for fear forsooth otherwise there should be as many ways of Christian Worship as there are several Christian Kingdoms of Common-wealths I speak not this to revile the established Religion of the Nation but to excite the Professors of it to observe devoutly what they Christianly profess as to Holy-days Lent Fridays and other Fasting-days Confession of sins to a Priest and other Holy and Profitable Rites when Piously and Reverently performed and by which they are distinguished from Non-conformists And by this time I hope My Dearest Relations you understand what I mean by a Prelatick Protestant But what do I understand by Popery and a Papist Why what should I understand by a Papist but what the generality of people understand by a Papist Those things we call Stones which every body commonly speaking calls Stones and so I understand by Popery and a Papist what every body commonly speaking calls a Papist and Popery By a Papist then I understand one that worships Stocks and Stones Medals and Pictures of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary and other Saints as Gods and consequently prays to them and puts his whole confidence in them as the ancient Heathens did in their dumb Idols of Jupiter Mars and Venus c. I say one that worships Pictures of Jesus Christ as Gods Not barely one that has such Pictures and for pious purposes also for that Prelatick Protestants have as well as they Protestants have Pictures of Jesus Christ and his Holy Mother not only in their private Houses and publick Churches but even their very Common-Prayer Books are full of them in the last Impression to excite in the Beholders mind a lively apprehension of our Blessed Saviours life and death Nor can I think they that are so ceremonious in devoutly Bowing when they hear the Holy Name
of their Saviour Jesus can forbear in some devout fit especially those of the tenderer Sex from kissing the Picture of their same dearest Lord. But here 's the difference betwixt them and the Doltish Papist That the Papist Bows at the Name of Jesus and kisses his Picture with a design to give Divine Honour to the very Name and Picture but our Prelatick Protestant does the same thing intending only to give them civil respect as he would give to the Name or Picture of his King Furthermore a Papist is one that believes the Pope can give him leave to commit any sin for Money or if any one were so bold to commit the sin before he got leave to commit it 't is but giving so much Money and the same Holy Indulgent Father can so perfectly pardon your sin as you shall not be in the least danger of any punishment for it Temporal or Eternal in Purgatary or in Hell And all this though you have no purpose at all to forsake your sin And this his Holy Father can do by a plenitude of Power which he has of disposing and applying to whom he pleases penitent or not penitent the superabundant merits of Jesus Christ our Blessed Saviour and his Millions of Saints of all whose merits the Pope is supreme Lord to dispose of them to the living or dead as he by his un-erring Spirit thinks fitting I say to the living or dead for this Papist believes that the Pope can free what Souls out of Purgatory he pleases paying their debts for which they are there in prison out of the stock of the supererrogatory works of Saints Always provided that in lieu or rather purchase of so great a favour some of the deceased parties friends give a large alms to his Holiness Moreover the Papist Honours the Virgin Mary much more than he does her Divine Son or God the Father and therefore for one Prayer he makes to God he says ten to the Holy Virgin But alas what are his Prayers A company of Latin words he neither understands nor cares to understand which if he do but patter over in such a number though his mind and heart be wholly taken up with worldly thoughts and desires he thinks he has done such a meritorious work as God almighty is obliged for the great Honour he has done him to give him Eternal Happiness If he do but believe as his Churchmen believe though he be wholly ignorant of their Belief his Soul is safe enough Besides he makes not only Gods of Holy Men departed but even of sinful Men whilst they live Hence he makes less scruple of breaking Gods Laws than he does of violating any Ordinance of the Pope or any Law of his Church He must by no means touch the least bit of Flesh on a Fasting-day against his Churche's Law upon pain of damnation but if he commit Fornication 't is but a Venial sin and sprinkling himself with a little Holy Water he 's as pure from all spot as a new Baptiz'd Infant And as for obedience to Magistrates if they be not of his Religion he ows them no Allegiance And it he have by Oath obliged himself he has a Holy Father can dispense with him for that or any other Oath for a piece of Money If his Prince persecute him for his Religion let him but have so much desperate courage to Sacrifice his own life to Stab or Poison his said Persecutor he shall at Rome be Canoniz'd for a Saint Nor can private persons expect any fidelity from him when he is thus traiterously rebellious against his Liege Lord and Soverain Therefore whatsoever promise he has made to an Heritick he may lawfully break it and cheat and cozen him without any scruple Nay need make no more difficulty of killing an Heritick than of a common Highway Man As for Fasting and Mortification if he but abstain from Flesh though he drink all day long the best Wines he can get fill himself at noon with all variety of Fish and stuff himself again at night with all sorts of Sweet-meats he has like a good Christian piously and sorrowfully commemorated the bitter death and passion of his dear Redeemer he has done a work of a strange force to satisfie for his sins to suppress his corrupt inclinations to elevate his mind to Heaven to cast out the Devil to obtain the Holy Ghost for himself or others As for Virginal Purity if he do but make a Vow of Chastity and keep himself from Marriage though he be as familiar with Nunns as Lay People are with their lawful Wives he is one of the Virgins in the Mystical Book of St. John who follow the Lamb whithersoever he goes As to Pardons Indulgences 't is wonderful what he believes For a round Sum of Money paid to his Holy Father the Pope he can purchase a Pardon for himself and his Heirs for ever for whatsoever sins he or they may possibly commit Sins that are to be committed by himself twenty years hence or by his Posterity a hundred years hence he has a Pardon for them already in his Pocket under the Broad Seal of Christs Vicar upon Earth which our Lord Jesus neither can nor will deny but has engaged his infallible word to ratifie and confirm and all this though the Persons who have obtained this Pardon or Indulgence should chance to dye without the least Remorse or Repentance for their sins And by this the World is taught to understand what a Blessing it is to have a great Estate for that Rich Men who have but Mony to purchase one of those Pardons can never fail of Heaven whereas the Poor and those of slender Fortunes for want of them must be hurried away into Eternal Misery without Bail or Mainprize Moreover by vertue of these Pardons they have leave to commit all manner of villanies without sin or at least without any danger of receiving any prejudice by sin These Papists they 'l tell you indeed their Church is a Holy Church and has all means imaginable to suppress vice and encourage to sanctity They have a Hell to set before audacious sinners to terrifie them from committing mortal and grievous offences and they have a Purgatory with which they threaten lesser offenders But in very deed both their Hell and their Purgatory are so easily avoided by any one that has a little Money that he must be one that startles at his own shaddow that can at all be terrified by either For had you committed all kinds of sins imaginable if you have but the Impudence to tell your Ghostly Father all those villanies in his Ear though you be so far from resolving to amend as you secretly purpose when you have clear'd the old to begin a new score provided you do but profess to your said Confessor that you are sorry and say you will amend he by three or four words in Latin Ego te Absolvo c. By the Authority of Jesus
great Lord Jesus in Heaven represented by those Figures Put all that has been said together and you will see there is no great wonder in it that the commonalty of our sadly divided Countrey should believe a thousand lies in matters of Religion concerning their Catholick Neighbours especially if you add that those who have been about 150 years slandering of them have withall told the vulgar that Catholicks are such a cunning and deceitful people that you may not believe them in one word what they say to you concerning their Religion but being asham'd of their Fopperies they will deny them if you lay them to their charge Or if at any time you meet with any whose candor and sincerity you are so convinced of that you cannot think he would tell you a lye Then you must imagine him to be of a particular belief and temper from all other Catholicks and though he hold no such absurdities by reason of his better understanding learning c. yet the generality of the people most certainly hold them all O the craft and cunning of the Devil and deceitful Men thus to blind and miserably impose upon the simple and well-meaning vulgar Jesus of his Mercy open their Eyes and make them see who they are that thus sadly delude and cheat them Besides the Laws being very severe against Catholicks many are afraid to have a better opinion of them than they are taught to have though they even see they are much slandered lest they should be convinced of the truth of their Religion and then be obliged either to damn their Souls if they would not embrace it or loose their Estates and Preferments if they did embrace it Finally Catholick Religion is a Holy and Strict Religion and therefore no wonder if the Professors of it be hated and ill spoke of by the wicked and loose world Libertines willingly speak ill of those that are strict and very conscientious in their ways but being ashamed to revile them for their Vertues though that be the real quarrel which they have with them they mis-interpret their innocent and good Actions and calumniate their persons with a thousand slanders For Example Catholick Religion teaches that if any one have wronged his Neighbour by cheating cozening or stealing any thing from him he 's bound if he be able under pain of damnation to make restitution and without this no Tears no Prayers no Faith in the Blood of Christ can save him The same Religion teaches also that you are bound under pain of damnation to confess your most secret sins to a Priest and that if you be truly penitent and resolved to lead a new life upon the Priests absolution on Earth you are most certainly pardoned in Heaven It teaches also that you have a like obligation to abstain from Flesh in Lent and upon other days of Abstinence Fridays Vigils c. Now Flesh and Blood does not like these Restraints And hence those that have no mind either to make Restitution of ill gotten Goods or to discover their shameful sins to a Priest or to abstain from Flesh on certain days and understanding that Priests when people confess to them enjoyn them to make Restitution and if they be not able to fast enjoyn them oftentimes to give Alms in lieu of it and in such cases dispense with the Ecclesiastical Law of Abstinence this is ground enough to calumniate poor Papists and to tell the simple Multitude that they can buy pardon of their sins for Money and have leave from their Priests to break any Law of God for Money and let them commit what villanies they please 't is but confessing them to a Priest and this without any repentance or purpose of Amendment Misereor super turbam What Christian Heart would it not make to bleed to see how the well-meaning Multitude are abused and imposed upon by their deceived Guides My Dear Relations For the love you have to your Immortal Souls do your selves that right as but familiarly to converse with your Catholick Neighbours and with as little passion as you can do but ask them an account of their Religion and do not against all common sense and reason believe the Testimony of their Adversaries concerning them and their Religion rather than them themselves and if you do not find that you have been taught a thousand lies concerning them and that they hold nothing nor practice nothing but what they are able to give a very satisfactory Account of to any impartial Enquirer then say I am a Knave a Lyer and a Cheat one that deserves no Mercy from God or Man in this World or the next but if you find what I have said to be most true pray for those that have deceived you and think seriously what it behoves you to do and whetehr you have not reason to suspect those Church-men who stand in need of such notorious lies and slanders thereby to defend themselves against their Adversaries If Popery be such a doltish and senseless Religion then what need of belying it and slandering it to make it odious to the People and what fear of Its overspreading the Nation by a free and unlimited Toleration But the truth is it 's a Holy and most rational Religion and such as Men must cease to be Men or they cannot but acknowledge the Finger of God in it when it is duly and truly represented as it is in it self devoid of all those fopperies and lies with which it is calumniated by its Adversaries For the love of God what Papist in the world believes that the Gospel is but a Fable of Christ that the Bishop of Rome is a God Not any sin but is or may be indulged amongst them and scarce a known sin but there is a known price for it and at their Market-rate you may commit them when you will that they allow Whoredom all the year long and the practices of other uncleannesses not to be named among Men in some Months of the year that mortal sins are put away by Agnus Dei's by little parcels of the Gospel by Popes and Bishops Pardons c. That Christ is the Saviour of Men only but of no Women for Women are saved by St. Clare and Mother Jane That the Pope may check when he pleases the Epistles of St. Paul and controul any thing avouched by all the Apostles That we must simply believe the Church of Rome whether it teach true or false and if the Pope believe there is no life to come we must believe it as an Article of our Faith What Papist in the world believes one of all these Madnesses and Blasphemies and yet the whole Roman Church is charged with them all by no less a Man than the present Arch-Bishop of York if that Book be his Grace's which is commonly sold in London with his Name to it and the Printers also under the Title of a Manul of Active Positive and Oppositive Divinity written by him to preserve a Noble
Lady from the danger of Popery I confess a Protestant to whom I read a Dialogue in that Maunal said Surely some body to disgrace his Lordship had Printed it under his Name But on the other side it is not credible that a Book should be publickly sold all over England for four years together under so Great a Persons Name and yet be none of his if there were any thing in it his Lordship was asham'd to own I well foresee what I have written will be ill taken by many but I dare not but discharge my Conscience and profess as in the sight of God I wtite not thus to disgrace any Mans Person but meerly to dis-abuse my well-meaning Relations who I am sure have such a Zeal of Godliness and true Sanctity that they would love Papists and their Holy and strict Religion with their Hearts were not they and their Religion mis-represented unto them To defame a particular Person is a great wickedness but to slander a whole Church is a Detraction of a higher rank and assuredly does oblige the Detractor to revoke his Calumnies God be merciful to us we have faults but too too many what need of belying one another Let us believe one another what we say our Tenets of Religion are and dispute against those and not against the uncharitable surmizes of our own Brains To judge my Neighbours to be guilty of most horrid Blasphemies when they protest they abhor them no less than my self if this be not to Judge my Neighbour which is notwithstanding most severely prohibited me by my Blessed Saviour I know not what is Now for a Grave Doctor to accuse not some private Authors but the whole Roman Church of all those Blasphemies and Absurdities I but now mentioned and yet not that so much as one single Papist you can meet with will own so much as one of them I am at a stand what to think Surely no Man could be so malicious to write such things on purpose to abuse a poor Lady and on the other side to think that a Doctor of Divinity could be so ignorant of the Tenets of Papists as to believe that no body can be a Papist but he must necessarily believe the Pope is a God that he may have leave to commit almost any sin at a known price when he will that the Gospel is a Fable c. Had he in plain terms told the good Lady some Roman writers as he understood them or as Protestants cited them held such and such Absurdities and Blasphemies but not one Papist she could meet with would own so much as one of them this would have signified nothing to the retaining of her in the Protestant Communion For the Reply would have been easie Either you mis-understand the Authors or else they are at most but the phrensies of some particuler Men and consequently I may be a Papist and hold none of them but abominate and detest them all But that he might be sure to preserve the Lady from the danger of Popery under the disguise of a Dialogue he makes a Papist give for Reasons why he cannot become Protestant the Blasphemies and Absurdities above which is as much as to tell her if she will turn Papist such and so Blasphemous must her Faith and Religion be Methinks knowing many of his Catholick Neighbours to be Men of good Judgment and honest Conversation he should have demanded of them whether such things were generally believed by them or no before he had printed them as Reasons why a Papist could not change his Religion for if one may be a sound Papist and hold none of them then all his Lordships discourse falls to the ground whatsoever some particular Doctors may hold concerning them Though that also be a meer calumny and should any be so extravagant as to assert such Diabolical phrensies he would be cast out of our Church as a Blasphemer And that you My Dear Relations may see that I have not at all wronged the Doctor I have thought fit to transcribe some few Lines out of his 7th Chap. Page 101. The next to his Dialogue The foregoing Sixth Chapter says he gives an account of some of the Blasphemies and Abominations of the Roman Church many more might be instanced c. Where in plain terms as before under the disguise of a Dialogue he charges not barely some particular Authors but the whole Roman Church and all Roman Catholicks with the Blasphemies in the foregoing Dialogue He goes on Where is their Piety towards God while they affirm that the Gospel is but a Fable of Christ c. Nay even that the Bishop of Rome is a God c. Where is their Sobriety and Chastity while they Authorize Stews allow Whoredom all the year long c. Scarce a known sin but there is a known price for it and at their Market-rate you may commit them when you will c. Such extravagant Discourses though they may hinder some from ever examining the Catholick Religion yet they are oftentimes God Almighty out-shooting the Devil in his own Bow happy occasions of the Conversions of others I remember to have read of a German Count who reflecting how divers of his Catholick Neighbours were Persons of a very sound Judgment and Understanding he began to think with himself how they could believe such strange Doctrines as were by his Ministers commonly laid to their charge hereupon he resolved to inquire into their Tenets and he found for a great part they held no such Doctrines as they were commonly taxed with and as for what they did indeed hold they had very good Reasons for their Faith And so by the merciful Grace of God became a happy Convert to that Religion the which before he impartially examined it seem'd so exotick and incredible unto him Which I hope My Dear Relations will one day be your happy lot also Take but pains candidly and diligently to inquire and I doubt not but it will But if you will needs go on to think your Catholick Neighbours to be such Monsters of Men and to hold such horrid Blasphemies and Absurdities which they profess no less to abhor and detest than your selves I hope I have done the duty of a Christian Kinsman and to my grief must one day bear witness against you that I told you how grosly you mis-apprehended the True Worshippers of Christ but you would neither believe me nor seriously use any means to inform your selves aright But I hope better things concerning you Another great cause of all your mistakes is the scandalous lives of too too many Roman Catholicks For the truth is no Catholicks believe so much as one of the above-mentioned Absurdities yet many of them Christ Jesus mend us all live so as they may seem to a prejudiced beholder to believe divers of them Considering their Mock-prayers Mock-fasts and Mock-confessions without any Amendment of life c. But to help you against this you must remember the Counsel